August 2010

We were busy this weekend so food was rather pedestrian, pizza for both Friday and Saturday. I did prepare a nice spring salad for each meal. However, I prepared one dish that was outstanding, Seared Ahi Tuna and Mexican Rice with Achiote Sauce. Over the last year, I discovered achiote sauce and I have embraced it wonderful flavor with zeal.

This week the telecom new sites and bloggers have been abuzz with comments and insights regarding the Google announcement of "free" phone service for Gmail users. For those that have been on another planet this week, Google's new product will allow Gmail users are able to place free calls within the United States and Canada. The service is quite simple to activate. A phone call is started by selecting the "Call phone" option within the Gmail chat tool.

Yesterday a most unusual thing happened. A customer complained by sending an email to our CEO. Most companies expect to see emails or phone calls to upper management regarding service or billing issues regularly. However, in the case of Broadvox, it seldom happens.

Few times do I enter a weekend knowing the recipe of the week. Last week was such a weekend. I made two fabulous grilled dishes last week, blackened New York strip steak and spicy Asian chops. I had never prepared blacked steaks before but given the result, I will do them again.

The immediate barrage of comments related to the net neutrality proposal from Google and Verizon gave me pause. While looking to such major players to devise a net neutrality plan that would truly address the concerns of consumer activists and Internet entrepreneurs would be foolish. I needed time to consume the proposal to understand was it really that bad for the industry and Broadvox. In some ways, the proposal begins to address my change in position regarding net neutrality.

Last week was great for food. I was in Cleveland to train our new channel managers when I found I had an evening to myself. I went to Lola, owned by Michael Symon, an Iron Chef on the food network. I chose the restaurant because he is into offal and there will be sweetbreads on the menu.

Last week, I missed posting my Friday blog. I was working on a response to a proposal for a large multi-national enterprise. It was different from most RFPs we receive, in that pricing and traffic were not the primary concern. Instead, the primary concern was business continuity or survivability.

I had my older grandson, Jake, for the weekend, so cooking took an interesting turn. Friday was burgers with Belgian fries. Since Jake loves sushi, Saturday, we took him to an Asian buffet for dinner called Tokyo One. Although, only thirteen he attacked the variety of food with zest.

When I joined Broadvox three years ago, I was not familiar with the company. Although, I had an asterisk-based PBX in my home office, I was also unfamiliar with SIP Trunking. The challenge at the time of my hiring was to establish both the company and the technology as mainstream for VARs, consultants and, of course, end-users. Over the last three years, we have developed a superb organization (see the August Newsletter) and a very robust and feature-rich product offering.

I actually accomplished a long desired goal this weekend. I took my grandkids to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Previously, they were too young or too busy or lived out of the state. Sunday, though everything came together.

The seven deadliest attacks on Unified Communications do not need to be fatal. However, they do require multiple approaches. First, here is the list as developed by Dan York. If you want to see details, please visit the Wednesday blog or read his book, the "Seven Deadliest Unified Communications Attacks".

1) The Ecosystem Expansion exposes voice and video applications to the same security challenges as data.

The number of end points continues to increase dramatically. As such, they are drawing the attention of hackers globally. Just as smartphones using Apple OS and Android are attracting the attention of hackers, as noted with the increase in benign and malicious phone apps, so too has the IP community become a target. In addressing this increase, service providers must work in conjunction with their sales channels and customers to make every effort to prevent or minimize the exposure.